early days

I met Teo Ah Keng in 1971. He was a student in my conversational English class. I taught in a hotel room set up for less than 10 students at a time. Usually I taught groups of several students at a time. Sometimes we read from texts, newspapers, magazines but more often we just chatted. I got married in October & in 1972 I was lucky enough to land the Music job @ the ANZ High School, Changi. When I told my English conversation students that I was quitting Ah Keng asked, 'can I come to you house to learn English?' I said, 'ok.' Ah Keng asked, 'how much money you want?' I said, 'no money.' You can teach me taichi.'

So Ah Keng came several times a week to 361 Changi Road in 1972/3 & often he brought prawns from his cousin's factory. We chatted, he demonstrated & I tried to get a supple body which was very hard to do & we ate prawns that my wife & sometimes her father cooked. Ah Keng told me that we were doing 'Young style' which he told me was the family name. Many years later when books started coming out in English I found that there was a 'Yeung style' & a Yang style. Most Westerners pronounced 'Yang' so it rimed with sang so I was no the wiser. But it didn't matter because I just kept doing the patterns that Ah Keng had taught me anyhow.

TAIJIQUAN  -  Learning the swinging exercise - 1972  Changi Road, Singapore

When I started trying to do this exercise I was very stiff tho I didn't realise how much. In 1971 I learned KunTao which was body conditioning against sandbags to make the limbs numbed to pain. We soaked in herbal medicine which stayed on all night. The paired training routines were about learning to strike with power. Some of the patterns I now know were from Eagle claw. 

In 1971 when I was learning KunTao I asked my training partner, a garage mechanic with basic English if he could ask * *Xiansheng, * polite form of 'mister' - like calling your teacher 'sir' I guess.  I asked our teacher what training I should do during the day when I had some spare time. My training partner translated. The answer – “brisk walking.”  So since then I have taken that answer very seriously when doing forms & movement generally. We walk without thinking about what we are doing much at all. It is something we do from childhood all our lives. We shift the weight from one foot to the other & allow the rest of the body to swing naturally. Even more so when we walk briskly.

Kuntao' is a Southeast Asian martial arts of Chinese origin from the Hokkien  words for 'fist'  kun,  and way, tao. kun tao, literally translated as 'fist way' but really an idiomatic generic meaning 'martial arts'.  Kun Tao  is roughly equivalent to Guoyeu, 'wushu', 'kuoshu' and 'chuan fa'.  Tao, Dao now - meaning Way, philosophy or doctrine, is not the same as Fa, meaning rule or method. 

Chinese Martial Arts in SE Asia have diverged from their Chinese origins far enough to be considered distinct arts in their own right.   The relationship between Kuntao and the indigenous Indo-Malay martial arts found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the western Philippines is far from clear.  The the term 'kuntao' is used in the Indo-Malay and Philippines and depends heavily upon context. for instance as a loan word into Indonesian Bahasa, kuntao bali.

Hakka Kuntao or Hakka Kuen, is a generic term for all the martial arts systems created and developed by the Hakka people, mostly in the southern Chinese provinces of Fujian and Guangdong.  Hakka are one of the ethnic Han groups that migrated from Henan, Central China to the south.. Hakka were soldiers in the past & always been famous for their fighting skills.
Many famous Hakka were heros, warriors and leaders - Guan Yu, Yao Fei, Lin Biao, Hong Xiuquan leader of the Taiping rebellion, Sun Yatsen, Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng &  Lee Kwan yew, former prime minister of Singapore .  Yip Man who was Bruce Lee's mentor was the first Wing Chun master to teach non-Hakkas.   Hakka style characteristics  close range, elbows stay inside, the back is rounded, the chest is empty, the Hakka phoenix eye fist.

Ah Keng, who was hakka - taught me a swinging exercise which he called 'sung' meaning sink - relax. It was really walking on the spot with the soles of the feet parallel, firmly planted, knees slightly bent. As in walking - or riding a bicycle weight is transferred from one foot to the other.

Arms swing naturally as in walking. The hips are seated as if in a saddle, like riding a horse or bike. Often in tai chi moving from position to the next people talk about 'sitting' on one leg or the other. Swinging the arms tests the stability of your stance of course.  Ah Keng often said, '500 times a day.' Repetition results in progress. It allows the body to loosen up. It is a good idea to stand in front of a full length mirror once in a while to see what you are actually doing. I always begin my daily training @ 6am with the sung exercises.

Ah Keng taught me to walk on the spot but with my feet apart in a high ma, horse stance - about shoulder width apart. If you look down you should be able to see your toes. Arms swing naturally higher as the weight is sunk into the feet alternatively. Hips & kness must be stable. Rotation with the turning of the hips allows the arms to swing up & back. With time the idea is to make the swing quite precise so that the heavy relaxed arm's arc flows up so that the first finger tips line up with the nosetip & drop down with the rotation.

A partner is useful @ this stage. If the partner holds her hand chest high about a foot from the centre of her chest, palm down then you should be able to tap on her palm with the top of your hand as it swings thru. At all times your arm should be as if broken, without strength - like a wet rope. This training should be quiet & precise. The aim is to develop accuracy without using any external strength. When you are doing forms the arms should move in a similar fashion as you step into each position.

Think mostly of sinking your weight with each static step so that eventually you are mostly aware of the connection of the soles of the feet & the palms. Notice that the belly moves L & R about 45 from the front as you turn. Standing in front of a full length mirror & monitoring what you are actually doing is a good idea. How long to do this training? Ah Keng routinely said, '500 times a day for the rest of your life.' By counting the mind gets focused.

This morning I went thru some stepping with Craig - his 3rd training session with me. Step & swing your arm up to shake hands. You know how to shake hands of course. If a person offers a firm grip that's ok. If not that's ok too. The purpose of the swing up to a handshake when doing tai chi is to relax! If some one is presenting a fist instead of a handshake the best tai chi probably is to swing up under the opponent's fist & loop the hand up into the push hands position with the back of the hand/wrist against the opponent's wrist & go from there.

Back to the walking. This morning Craig & I did -

1 step with LF - swing RH up to 'shake hand.'
2 *pivot the LF 45.
3 Swing LH up & step with RF --- repeat

Changing directions -  Pivot, swing in various directions bring hands together one cupping the other as a double fist. * pivot, swivel keeping the heel on the ground.

sinking exercise #2

Begin with high horse stance with feet parallel as #1. Raise hands up as if 'heaven position' in bagua & drop as you sink your weight into the R foot & turn L. If your arms are completely relaxed & heavy the R hand should swing up to your L shoulder covering the points Lung 1 & 2 & your L hand should swing up into the small of your back. Sink into the L foot & turn the waist 180+ swinging the hands up & & then down so that the L hand covers the R shoulder Lungpoints & the R hand ends up in the small of the back. The palm covers the lungpoints & the palm in the small of the back naturally faces out. Avoid bouncing up & down, just sink - check in a full length mirror or ask your partner to give you feedback as your height should remain constant.

sinking exercise #3 -

same basic stance - high horse, feet shoulder width apart & you should be easily be able to see your toes in front of your knees if your look down. Begin as #1 & do a few repetitions to get your rhythm up. Then, increase the turn & allow your arm to rotate further as if doing a looping backhand on each side. More like how you play a backhand in squash. After the backhand loop your hand & forearm should be horizontal, more or less as it crosses your chest. If your elbow is up you're using shoulders instead of hips to drive the movements. Relax & swing, think pendulums.

When I was a child our family learned 'swinging clubs.' A while back I tried to find something on the net about that. Signalling was done with flags before the invention of the morse code. I learned some of that in the scouts. Swinging clubs was popular in Scandinavia but I found out that being able to wield & rotate very heavy clubs was once a highly developed skill in Ancient Persia. As to where Ah Keng got the exercises from I think it may have been thru his 'White Crane' lineage as I have not seen this kind of training done in other tai chi styles.

From  - Baguazhang Blog  - “ You talk of how my grandfather trains me and my brother in Sichuan so long  ago. Shifu Painter talk of his teacher doing same to him in his early day.  Laozi say, "less talk, less thought, hold fast to center." I remember Shifu  at Tai Chi farms says he learn much from teacher Li, Longdao but not know  much about what is to work in practical ways except when he go off to be  bodyguard and find out what is working and what is not. Experience is best real teacher I know this, you also so many other I think are not knowing this very  well.”    Desmont T. Chang

'Mind your centre' applies to so many things. I train every morning in the park at dawn so only serious people show up to train with me as 'it is not a user friendly time' & I expect people to really focus. I quit teaching night classes 20 years ago. Yesterday I said at the end of the session to Craig who has been with me for a few weeks to think of the belly as a rotating ball & the arms & legs following that motion. So the ball swings right then left & the left foot sinks & the right palm follows & so on.
 
 

I also pointed out again today that the body already has a lot of natural memory. How to walk to begin with. And how do people learn to walk? Not from formal instruction. They just copy people around them. They copy so well that families & localities have a particular style of walking that is embedded for life. To unlearn a walking style takes a lot of concentration. After walking people learn to dancing, do sport, work & so on. A while back I wrote about the 'dao of mopping floors,' which is really a version of 'polish on polish off - as in Karate Kid.'
 
 I asked Vinn years ago, 'what do you do all day Vinn?' He gestured that he stands in front of a wok digging & stirring. I said that if anyone gives him a hard time that he should step in & go straight for the ribcage. Vinn arrived in Australia as a boat refuge, 14 years of age. Now 2 of his daughters are engineers. Vinn remembers having kungfu instruction from his grandfather in Vietnam.
 
 I am a retired teacher. I found out that making working environments is the best way to educate kids. Give them tasks & let them go for it. If the want to work alone, that's fine. If they want to work in a group, that's fine. If they need to refer back to the teacher because they are stuck that's ok too.  Towards the end of my career I used to take a class of under achieving mostly boys for English. I got them to discuss some cartoons & comic strips, then draw & label their own & discuss that they'd done. Then we'd go on to writing up sports events, trips, & etc. Sketch first, do a caption, discuss in groups, write a sentence or two, write query letters, replies & so on.

Then there were the - 'good copy books' - that I kept in the cupboard. I'd call for a student & discuss items to keep for assessment & the corrections. That done I ask the student to get his good copy book & bring it to me. Then I'd say, 'now look straight into my eyes & say, 'the best work I ever did.' Then I say, 'ok take it slow, I don't care how long it takes.' The scripts improved immediately & were all 'copybook' by the end of the year. I used to show the work to the lady English teachers who would say, 'how did you get this work from Him!?'

Lindsay....thanks for that great post....the learning to swim story was so true.  I have taught hundreds of adults to swim and it is hard for them to pick up all the aspects of buoyancy, hydrodynamics of movement, stroke mechanics and breath control etc .Like Bagua training....it requires practice and more practice....all one needs is just enough info to take the next step....one may try to break it all down intellectually and put it together in doing but that is extremely hard to do...better to just practice fundamentals and let the learning curve be guided by intent and doing.  

 

Some years ago I asked Adrian Wu, a friend from Ipoh, Malaysia,  'you learn kungfu when you were a boy Adrian.' He said, 'yes.'  I asked 'what did you learn?'  He said, 'this,' & stood in traditional ma bu with his clenched fists stuck to his hips. I asked, 'how long did you do this?  He said, '4 years.'  Then he went on to explain that all the boys who wanted to learn stood in ma bu at the training ground & watched the men train. Once in a while a senior would wander over & shove. The old saying is 'can't stand, can't fight.' When a boy was able to stick to the ground he was taken aside to learn basic stepping. Adrian said that as they'd been standing watching the training most could follow along quite well immediately.

I learned various things in Singapore from Chinese teachers in the early 1970s. There was very little discussion or explanation, not that I would have understood anyhow as at that time I had no Hokkein. At tea breaks & meals after training a few things were translated for me such as what 'the Dao' is, which is that it is mysterious & can't be explained which was quite a condundrum for me at the time. As I was teaching in schools & playing in the Singapore Teacher's Band I did have opportunities to ask about a few things with people who were fluent in English & I found out that the Dao is just the natural rhythm of nature, the flow of the seasons & all that.

'Westerners' in general ask far too many questions & don't do the training. It's not question of knowing about how to do a skill it is the doing & finding out for yourself what doesn't work. If you don't get in the pool you'll not learn how to swim. If you don't get in the pool regularly you'll not learn to swim properly. If you don't train every day you'll not become a good swimmer. If you train every day for 4 hours or more from childhood you may become a competitive swimmer - if you have a good coach, keen parents, eat & sleep well & so on. There isn't much talk when you are swimming. You just swim.  Cheers & Good Luck Lindsay

Shizi Carstoniu: Re-reading your post this morning reminds me of something else. When my first daughter was five, I taught her to ride a bike. It killed my back as I bent over and ran with the bike repeatedly, for days. With my second daughter, I knew I was not going to do that. So, I told her nothing, but gave her a game. I had her walk a small bike from the garage to the street on a slight incline. I made a game where she counted her steps and rewarded her verbally if the next time she used less steps. Within an hour she was riding down the driveway with zero steps. It took 15 minutes for me to get her feet on the pedal and pedal.

After this I taught a lot of my relatives and friend's kids to ride on the bet that I could have them riding within an hour. I didn't always make an hour, but Never went to an hour and 30 minutes. I told one person about this technique and it was in the paper the next week. I've always wondered what that guy did for a living (journalist?). I just saw him trying to teach his son with training wheels in a public park. He didn't seem to listen to what I said, but the article did appear the next week. When teaching my daughter, I told her NOTHING about the mechanics. When I think about it, I could have explained the mechanics all day long and she could never have ridden.  I'm guessing you and I might learn things that require mind and body to be coordinated the same way.

One other point.  It wasn't until I was teaching my daughters how to ride I bike that I even thought about the mechanics of what I was doing when I rode, like you turn the wheel ever so slightly towards the direction your balance is off. But, had I known that at age 7 when I learned to ride my 26 inch I don't think it would have helped much (yeah, my parents said I was only going to get only one bike so it had to be full sized - tough on the genitals on downstroke of the peddle and rendered the seat useless).

So, it appears, at least with a bike, the learning cycle is; (1) learn how to ride, (2) observe what you learned, (3) figure out how it works, (4) teach one person wrong, (5) teach multiple people right. :-) Kim Cooper

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My grandfather born in emei mountain china and was Ba Gua man he has good  idea of emei Ba Gua and I learn first from him, many year later I move to  South America then come to USA meeding Shirfu Painter at Tai Chi Farm of master  Jou's and I learn that Shirfu Painter have old Ba Gua knowledge not in  modern ideas of same. So I follow him and see how he take old idea and put in  new science to understanding the methods. I think I know lot when I first come
to Jiu Long family, over time I find I am better to be student and learn  insteads of compare all with past knowing. Perhaps please learn more about Jiu  Long Bagua as student then you able to talk more with convictions about how  this art is generate power of jin.  Thanking you,  Desmond T. Chang

Marcus came to see me this year for a few days & could still do the form that he learned with me over a couple of years about 15 years ago - which is saying something. He has plugged in to various teachers over the years. I told him that he doesn't have a root & that he should do standing training. Most people don't bother doing the standing & that's exactly like the musicians who don't bother to play scales & technical exercises every day. Some don't bother at all. Marcus did a workshop with William Chen in Holland a few years ago so he fancies learning how to do 'the one inch punch,' need an excellent root & a lot of Qi development for that. On the alignment - this morning @ training I discussed that point with Dave, surveyor - training with me 10 years & Craig - a few months, diesel mechanic & very keen.

Marcus on Tony Ward’s training

The Sydney training was excellent, bit hard to say distinctly what I got out though. I'll give it a go but hey it's an approximation;- -Never turn without keeping the hip/shoulder alignment, if you do, there is a twist and somebody is just going to motor in and spoil your day. Be really, really sure which leg you're on. Completely put your weight on it and leave the other one.  When moving from leg to leg, no forcing, not even a  little. When moving from leg to leg, no turning, wait until you’re  on the substantial leg then turn.

Standing is just great stuff.  Tony uses an interesting assortment of stances each having unique advantages.  Standing with arms up for an hour. Not easy but great after a week or two. Mr Huang's loosening exercises are bloody complicated, each having things ya gotta do or not, but I only got to find out a bit.  Alignment, alignment, alignment.

A few stories about what Huang did and didn't do. Amazing guy. Tony does this spiral stuff which is awesome, but hard to describe, bloody practical though. Only started with that, it's very difficult to get learn fast, maybe next time. I've just reread it but that's not really it, but something. The greatest thing was just practicing, the standing, loosening exercises, spiral stuff, form and pushing every day with guys and chicks who've been doing it for ages. Relax, relax, relax, no force, no force, you got the picture.

Craig go the point when he said, 'I could never bowl the cricket ball straight, so that's why.' I asked if anybody have ever told him to point his toe & is hand in the same direction. Craig mentioned that he walks with his toes pointed out. Then there was discussion about wing chun - standing on the spot doing chee sau & all of that. I had a student who knew wingchun so while he was around we all had a go at that. 

Tony, Mr Huang's student said that the old man only teaches the 37 steps, qigong & tuis shou as far as I know - that's all that Huang taught in his later years.  Doing weapons soon sorts out the alignment issues - but mopping floors, playing cricket & hockey are good for that too.  

NB  Some of the above is a compilation of conversations I have had with various people including some on Dr John Painter's site. I met John @ Jou Tung Hwa's Taiji Farm in 1992 & we did our first trip to NYC together in the back of David's van. David took us to William Chen's Tui Shou class.